Danica Patrick says her team owner told her she did the right thing in how she elected to race the final laps of the Daytona 500. / Sam Sharpe, USA TODAY Sports

by Jeff Gluck, USA TODAY Sports

by Jeff Gluck, USA TODAY Sports

AVONDALE, Ariz. ‚?? Danica Patrick was initially angry with herself for dropping from third place to eighth on the last lap of Sunday's Daytona 500.

But after hearing from a couple of NASCAR's top drivers, her attitude softened.

Both team owner Tony Stewart and race winner Jimmie Johnson told Patrick there wasn't much she could have done different on the final lap, Patrick said Friday at Phoenix International Raceway.

"I was just frustrated that I didn't have a better plan," she said. "Tony told me, 'I really feel like you had more to lose in your position than you had to gain by trying something. So I think that you did the right thing'. So that made me feel better - a little bit."

Patrick, who became the first woman to win a Sprint Cup pole and lead the Daytona 500, said she was still disappointed about losing her track position, even if she wasn't mad. Stewart's comments "put it in perspective," she added.

Patrick said the Daytona 500 winner told her she did "a nice job."

"And I said I had wished I had a better plan, but thank you and I have a lot to learn," Patrick recalled. "He said that the two (Daytona) wins he had, he didn't have a plan, and sometimes you just have to take it on the fly and work with what happens in the moment.

"He‚?¶said he'd seen the end of the race, and said, in his opinion, the only thing I could have done was back up to (Dale Earnhardt Jr.) when he backed up, but as far as what happened on the back straight when Junior went low, in his opinion, he thought I did the right thing."

Patrick said she still wanted to have a better plan for how to win the race in the future, but having some top drivers tell her she made good decisions "was a really nice thing."

As for Phoenix, Patrick said she knows the Daytona results won't be able to carry over. After all, this is not a restrictor-plate track, and Patrick has much to learn on downforce-style tracks.